It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word • Hacker News Board

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#301

Post by cowmix » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:34 PM UTC

Schiendelman wrote: post #276

cowmix wrote: post #267

I keep thinking about Sam Altman’s March ’23 interview on Lex Fridman’s podcast—this was after GPT-4’s release and before he was ousted as CEO. Two things he said really stuck with me: First, he mentioned wishing he was more into AI. While I appreciate the honesty, it was pretty off-putting. Here’s the CEO of a company building arguably the most consequential technology of our time, and he’s expressing apathy? That b…

Hi there! I've done a huge amount of political organizing in my life, for common good - influencing governments to build tens of billions of dollars worth of electric rail infrastructure. I'm also a big prepper. It's important to understand that stigmatizing prepping is very dangerous - specifically to those who reject it. Whether it's a gas main break, a forest fire, an earthquake, or a sci-fi story, encouraging peo…

I agree that prepping itself is completely fine, and people should be prepared for natural disasters, civil unrest, or whatever scenarios they’re most comfortable with. Building resilience is beneficial for both individuals and communities, and I can see how it plays an important role, especially in situations like the ones you mentioned in NC.

My issue, though, is with someone like Sam Altman—a leader of an organization that could potentially accelerate the downfall of civilization—being so deeply invested in prepping. Altman isn’t just a regular guy preparing for emergencies; he’s an incredibly wealthy individual who has openly discussed stockpiling machine guns and setting up private land he can retreat to at a moment’s notice. It’s that level of preparation, combined with his position at the helm of one of the most consequential tech companies, that doesn’t sit well with me. It feels like he’s hedging against the very future his company might be shaping.

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#302

Post by slashdave » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:34 PM UTC

BryanLegend wrote: post #280

ForOldHack wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single word he says Public is his product.

And he doesn't even use the shift key!

Actually, his blog is correctly capitalized. Although, you would think he could hire a proper editor, since the em-dashes are not formatted correctly. Baby steps.

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#303

Post by whamlastxmas » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

It’s really sad to see all the personal attacks and cynicism that has no basis in reality. OpenAI has an amazing product and was first to market with something game changing for billions of people. Calling him a fraud and scammer is super ridiculous

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#304

Post by azinman2 » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

prng2021 wrote: post #287

azinman2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s say you got AGI, and it approximated a not so bright impulsive 12 year old boy. That would be an insane technological leap, but hardly one you’d want running the show. AGI doesn’t mean smarter than the best humans.

If it's stuck at 12 year old level intelligence then it's not generally intelligent. 12 years can learn to think like 13 year olds and so on.

A set of weights siting on your hard disk don’t evolve to get smarter on their own. AGI does however require the ability to learn new skills in new domains; if you kept exposing it I don’t see why it wouldn’t be similar. But fundamental capacities in how good it is a reasoning / planning don’t have to exceed any given human to be considered AGI.

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#305

Post by iphoneisbetter » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

throwintothesea wrote: post #222

stonethrowaway wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to read a solid exposé of Worldcoin, but I don’t think I will get that from Buzzfeed or from The Atlantic. Both seemed to be agenda driven and hot headed. I’d like a more impartial breakdown ala AP-style news reporting.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#306

Post by GolfPopper » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

Schiendelman wrote: post #276

cowmix wrote: post #267

I keep thinking about Sam Altman’s March ’23 interview on Lex Fridman’s podcast—this was after GPT-4’s release and before he was ousted as CEO. Two things he said really stuck with me: First, he mentioned wishing he was more into AI. While I appreciate the honesty, it was pretty off-putting. Here’s the CEO of a company building arguably the most consequential technology of our time, and he’s expressing apathy? That b…

Hi there! I've done a huge amount of political organizing in my life, for common good - influencing governments to build tens of billions of dollars worth of electric rail infrastructure. I'm also a big prepper. It's important to understand that stigmatizing prepping is very dangerous - specifically to those who reject it. Whether it's a gas main break, a forest fire, an earthquake, or a sci-fi story, encouraging peo…

There's a difference between resilience and being prepared for the unexpected on one hand (a go-bag (for sudden travel, not Mad Max), on- and off-site backups of data & physical documents, a couple weeks of food & water, an emergency expenses account separate from savings, plus physical currency) and, on the other hand, being under the delusion that hiding in a super-stocked bunker is any sort of acceptable answer to the possible collapse of civilization.

And Altman is definitely in the latter camp with, "But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to."[1]

That a guy who says the above, and also says that AI may be an existential threat to humanity, also runs the world's most prominent AI company is disturbing.

1. https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ceo-survivalist-prepper

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#307

Post by FireBeyond » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

throwgfgfd25 wrote: post #202

m3kw9 wrote: post #186

The Atlantic is really going out of their way to hate on Altman. That publication has always been a bit of a whack job of an outfit

> That publication has always been a bit of a whack job of an outfit This is a bizarre take about a 167-year-old, continuously published magazine.

There's quite a number of posts here that seem determined to attack the integrity of The Atlantic... hm. Everything from "their writers are scared that they'll lose their jobs" to complaints about twenty year old articles not panning out correctly.

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#308

Post by iphoneisbetter » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:36 PM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #228

throwintothesea wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> although you won't find, like... fascism in there (sorry if you're disappointed) I don't understand how HN can hit such highs sometimes, but also host nonsense like this.

[dead]

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#309

Post by _cs2017_ » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

austinkhale wrote: post #39

There are legit criticisms of Sam Altman that can be levied but none of them are in this article. This is just reductive nonsense. The arguments are essentially: 1. The technology has plateaued, not in reality, but in the perception of the average layperson over the last two years. 2. Sam _only_ has a record as a deal maker, not a physicist. 3. AI can sometimes do bad things & utilizes a lot of energy. I normally rea…

To avoid disappointment, just think of the mass news media as a (shitty) LLM. It may occasionally produce an article that on the surface seems to be decently thought out, but it's only because the author accidentally picked a particularly good source to regurgitate. Ultimately, they just type some plausible sentences without knowing or caring about the quality.

Re: It's Time to Stop Taking Sam Altman at His Word

#310

Post by ctoth » Sat, Oct 05, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

throwintothesea wrote: post #222

stonethrowaway wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to read a solid exposé of Worldcoin, but I don’t think I will get that from Buzzfeed or from The Atlantic. Both seemed to be agenda driven and hot headed. I’d like a more impartial breakdown ala AP-style news reporting.

[flagged]

> The Atlantic doesn't have an ideological center,

Morning, boys. How’s the water?